First Impressions
by katzesama
Summary: How Seto met Alicia, in short. A prequel to my other story "Frustrating." Rated T for language.
1. Chapter 1

The name 'Romano' is not considered a common household name, unless you're referring to a type of cheese or the actor. Otherwise, you know the name. The owners of a luxury hotel chain, the Romano family are part of the creme de la creme of the New York upper class: Patriarch Cesare and his wife, eldest Ben, Tony, Nicola and their youngest daughter, Alicia.

Alicia was considered a little odd by most of her peers because, despite her family's wealth, she had insisted on paying for her living expenses through college as well as moving out on her own. For some bizarre reason that no one could really comprehend, Alicia liked working to support herself and being independent from her family's fortune. Perhaps it was this strange determination to make it that landed her in Domino working for Seto Kaiba. Well, not exactly Kaiba himself, per se... or at least not at first.

It started on a Wednesday, she remembered that much, and it had started out as a pretty good day. She'd managed to tame the mess she called hair, she'd gotten to work early and she'd been able to stop and get one of those donuts from the cafe down the street. Call it a weakness, but her love of food was unmistakably Italian. It was in her blood. Anyways, it had been a pretty good morning, and she was standing in the copy room waiting on a job to finish. A small cough behind her caused her to divert her attention from the exceedingly dull copier to her boss.

Alicia's boss was a smaller woman, maybe 5'4" at the most, with obnoxiously blond hair and bluegreen eyes. She was a fairly nice woman, albeit a bit of a pushover, but exceedingly professional and efficient. Alicia waved at her boss.

"Good morning," she said politely.

"Good morning, Ali," replied her boss. "Listen, can you do me a huge favor?"

Ali shrugged. Why not? It's not like she was ever incredibly busy.

"Great! Can you take this up to Mr. Kaiba's office? It's my lunch break and I haven't eaten all, so..."

Ali took the folder from the slightly smaller woman (Ali herself is about 5'6") and nodded briskly.

"No problem," she responded. "I've got the time."

Her boss, Misa, gave a little elated hop.

"Thank you _so _much, Ali!" she chirped. "I owe you one!"

Then she did something Ali didn't expect- her boss hugged her. Once the perky blond let go of her, she was gone in a heartbeat leaving Ali slightly shell-shocked. She didn't really like to be touched. In fact, it really bothered her when people invaded her personal space.

Glancing down at the file Misa had pushed into her hands, she felt a slight twinge of curiosity pick at her brain. In the month or two since Ali had started working, she'd never actually _seen _Kaiba herself. She knew what he looked like, sure, but that was besides the point. The point was that now she was sort of interested in this horribly menial task she was given.

Once she, y'know, managed to finish the one she was already doing, which didn't take more than a few minutes. Next came the ever so boring ride in the elevator to Kaiba's office. As soon as the doors opened, she wanted to go straight back down to accounting and never, ever come back.

There was a tall man in a suit- an executive, perhaps- with brown hair yelling at the seemingly small secretary cowering behind the desk. Ali couldn't see his face right off the bat, but she could see enough to conclude that he was wearing sunglasses, and that he was a total asshole.

"I need that blasted report _now_!" he roared, "_So why don't I have it yet_?!"

"I-I sent the request down to accounting, sir," stammered the secretary. "It should be on it's way-"

"_Useless_!"

He flung his arms up in a gesture of frustration and, grumbling, went to go snap at some other executives just hanging around. Glancing down at the manilla folder on top of her copies, Ali's brain put two and two together. Quietly, she crossed the room and approached the secretary. Gently, she held out the file to the trembling woman.

"Sorry about the delay, we had a few problems."

"_Finally_."

The file was snatched out of her hand by the executive who had been yelling at the secretary. He promptly opened the manilla envelope and started flipping through it. Ali blinked once, twice, three times before she turned to look at him.

"Excuse me," she said, tone honey-sweet with a sharp edge, "But there are these things called 'manners.' Ever heard of them?"

The man stopped, confused. He glanced over the edge of the folder down at Ali who was looking up at him with eyebrows raised as if she were interested in something. Honestly, he wasn't sure if he was supposed to be upset or amused by the woman in front of him, who was looking at him as if he was a ten year old with his hand in the cookie jar. Behind the sunglasses, he blinked.

"Well?" she prompted.

Closing the file, he directed his full attention to Ali.

"Pardon?" he asked.

"Well have you heard of manners or not?"

"I have."

"Then you have some really shitty ones, hon, because you need a serious attitude adjustment," she spat, tone turning harsh. "So you didn't get your precious little report _exactly_ on time, who _cares_? You have absolutely _no right_ to yell at her for something that isn't even her fault!"

"Miss," he said quietly, "Do you know who I am?"

"Honestly, no," she replied curtly, "And I couldn't care less. I had my own work to do, asshole, so sue me for doing my damn job!"

The man looked completely taken aback. The secretary and a few of the other executives standing around had mortified looks on their faces. Not that Ali cared or even noticed, as she promptly turned on her heel and took off for the staircase. She'd catch the elevator on the next floor.

The de-facto lobby in front of Kaiba's office was silent for a full two minutes after her departure. It was broken only by the whispers of a few terrified executives and a shaky squeak from the secretary. The man, however, simply smiled and mumbled something under his breath before striding across the room and into the sole office on that floor.

Now, it goes without saying that Ali's little outburst really sank in after she left, and she was pretty sure she was not going to have a job because of it. This fact bothered her the rest of the day, the entire evening, and up until she showed up at work the following morning. She sat at her desk- waiting for Misa to come in with an apologetic expression on her face and give her that oh-so wonderful pink piece of paper. When Misa did come in, her expression was more awed than sympathetic.

"Ali," she said quietly.

The American held her breath, light brown eyes shut tight in anticipation.

"Ali," Misa continued, "You've been transferred up to Mr. Kaiba's office, effective immediately."

...What?

"What?"

"Miss Romano, I'm only telling you what they told me," answered the blond.

Ali didn't argue beyond that, picked up her stuff and went to the elevator. As she rode, she pondered the odd turn of events and her current situation. This made no sense at all- after what she did, she should have been fired not...well, certainly not promoted or whatever this was. Still, she was grateful she still had a job. Exiting the elevator, she crossed the room to the empty desk where that poor woman had been sitting just the other day. Well, it was her desk, now; she sat down and leaned back in the chair, continuing to ponder over her unique circumstances.

"Penny for your thoughts?"

Ali's heart stopped. It couldn't be...

Her eyes shot open and she found herself looking up at the man from the day before, only he wasn't wearing sunglasses this time and light brown met sharp blue. He smiled at her (which filled her with complete and utter dread) before walking around to the front of her desk and dropping a large stack of papers on the desk.

"I want the financial report typed up and formatted for a spreadsheet, I need 50 copies of each briefing and my itinerary for my trip to Zurich needs to be completed. All done by noon and not a minute later."

Ali's eyes widened and she gaped at the man in front of her desk, totally speechless. Satisfied with himself, the man walked back around the desk to the office doors behind her. He went to open the door when she finally found her words.

"You... you're..."

He turned back to look at her and his smile broadened (which seemed so very, very wrong) as he finished:

"I'm Seto Kaiba."


	2. Chapter 2

Ali stared blankly up at the ceiling, her mind totally shot. How had she managed to insult _Seto Kaiba _and still be alive? A mystery for the ages, she supposed. She was a little more disappointed with herself, though, for not realizing it earlier. Come on- there was only one office on the entire goddamned floor. She wanted to kick herself, that's how dumb she felt. She didn't even want to know how he'd gotten her name.

Glancing over at the copy machine, she heaved a sigh. It was already a quarter past ten and she was only finished with about a quarter of the ridiculously massive stack of papers Kaiba had given her. She hadn't even started the financial report or his itinerary yet! This was probably payback for the crap she'd given him the other day. Desperately looking for a way to entertain herself, she started to play with her hair, twirling and un-twirling the ebony strands around her fingers.

Then she began to think about her mother. "Don't go," she'd said, "You'll make yourself miserable," she said.

If only she had listened to her mother. Then she wouldn't be sitting in this asshole's office killing trees. Still, the whole reason Alice had come to Domino was because it was her mother's home... but the fact that she hadn't taken her mother's advice seemed pretty dumb. She jumped back to reality when there was the familiar beep from the copy machine. Groaning, she set up the next sheet for the next 50 copies that asshole in the office behind her wanted.

Now that she thought about it, she decided to weigh the pros and cons. Her pay was still good, the work easy... but now her boss was a complete and utter selfish _dick_. It could be much, much worse.

A glance back at the copier instantly made her take that back- this was _torture_.

Perking up at the sound of the elevator doors opening, she was greeted with the sight of her old boss. Misa looked around anxiously before hastily crossing the office to Ali's desk.

"Hi Ali!" she said cheerily.  
"Er... hi, Miss Mazaki."  
"Misa. You can call me Misa."

Misa set down a cup of coffee on the desk.

"I know you usually go and get coffee at about ten, and no one saw you leave so I went and got some for you."  
"...You didn't have to do that," Ali said quietly.

Misa shrugged her shoulders and smiled.

"It's no big deal, though the coffee is actually from Inez. She said that she owed you big time for stepping in and helping her out like you did. I brought you a cappuccino; you like them dry, right?"

Ali nodded slowly, processing Misa's story. Her first thought was that Misa talked too much, swiftly followed by an awkward feeling. She wasn't really used to gestures of kindness or generosity for something so small. She wasn't exactly sure how to react.

"Thanks," she replied, taking the coffee from Misa.  
"No problem. Oh! I wanted to apologize if earlier I seemed a little...well, y'know." The blond shrugged again. "It's just that it's _Seto Kaiba_."

Ali groaned.

"Is he really that bad?"

Ali pointed to the massive stack of papers. Misa grimaced in response.

"50 copies of _each_, Misa. _50 each_."  
"Ouch."  
"You're telling me, and I haven't even started the financial spreadsheet or his itinerary or...or..."

Alicia Romano let her face fall flat on the desk in front of her.

"I think I'll have to skip lunch to get it all done."

She let out a frustrated and tired groan. Fucking Kaiba and his fucking deadlines...

"I could bring you lunch, if you'd like," offered Misa. "It's not like we have much to do in accounting right now since we turned in the financial report, so I can get you something."

Ali looked up, eyebrow raised, but she wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth.

"Thanks, Misa. I owe you one. Inez, too."

The blond grinned before scribbling something down on a post-it note.

"I'll see you later Ali," she said before walking back to the elevator and leaving.

Soon, it was just Ali and the copier machine. Again. Alicia reached for the coffee and took a large gulp of the warm beverage. It was just the way she liked it. A rare, genuine smile crept onto her face as she leaned back in her chair.

"Misa Mazaki, you are a woman after my own heart."

Men were not the only ones easily won over with food, and Ali figured there was a worthwhile friend in Misa...

...Once she got over the ridiculously blond hair.


End file.
